This invention relates to paper trays, in general, and, more particularly, to trays which are particularly adapted to be used with any type of electronic device which expels individual sheets of paper, such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, scanners, etc.
With the advent of computers, facsimile machines, copiers, scanners, printers, etc., offices, homes and other institutions now commonly make use of such equipment to generate documents. In some cases the equipment includes means to automatically collect and/or collate the documents (e.g., papers) expelled therefrom. In many cases, particularly printers, copiers, scanners, facsimile machines and the like designed for small office and/or home use no paper collectors are provided as part of the machine. Thus, users of such machines may be required to purchase additional components to collect and/or collate the exiting paper.
There are several prior art patents disclosing paper collection devices, such as trays, for use with photocopy and other machines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,053 (Menard) discloses a copy receiving tray for use with a copier which is mounted on a table so that a portion of the tray is located directly at the point in the copier from which the papers exit. The tray of this patent includes various guide surfaces which are located at the point at which the papers exit the copier to help guide them into the paper receiving cavity disposed therebelow. To further the guidance of the exiting paper into the paper receiving cavity the Menard device also makes use of a spring biased member which extends above and below the point at which the papers exit to act as a stop and guide to direct the exiting sheets of paper downward into the paper receiving cavity. As should be appreciated by those skilled in the art the combination of guide surfaces and the spring biased front section located opposite the point at which the papers exit the machine results in a rather complex, cumbersome and inherently expensive configuration. Moreover, the Menard patent's tray is not collapsible and thus is not suitable for compact storage when not in use.
Other prior art patents disclosing devices for use with copiers or other electronic devices from which sheets of paper are expelled to collect and/or collate the sheets are U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,154,356 (Lewis et al.), 3,704,793 (Nicol et al.), 3,807,726 (Hope et al.), 4,836,526 (Melnik), 4,995,602 (Nakadai et al.), 5,040,777 (Bell et al.), 5,190,167 (Andrews et al.), 5,207,417 (Bell et al.) and 5,388,818 (Anton et al.) While the foregoing prior art paper collecting trays or devices may generally be suitable for their intended purposes, they all appear to suffer from one or more drawbacks, such as size, complexity, cost, inability to be collapsed for storage, suitability for use with various machines or devices, etc.
Thus, a need presently exists for a tray which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.